The Giant Jersey Cabbage has been cultivated for over 150 years on the Channel Islands, where they can grow to 15 feet high - some cabbage!

Almost every part of the plant was used - the leaves chopped and added with other vegetables to make soup, the root carved into thimbles, and the stems made into walking sticks (very popular with Victorian gentlemen).

• Seeds available from Thompson and Morgan (at least).
• Sow them as you would spring cabbage, in August.
• Transplant in September or October to their permanent bed.
• When they are about 18 inches high, pick off the lower leaves; by the end of the first season they should have reached 3 feet in height.
• They will flower in the second season.
• At the end of the THIRD season, they are ready to harvest - they could be about 8 foot tall by this time.   Cut the stalks in walking stick lengths and allow to dry for six months.   Lacquer each one and fit a rubber tip to the bottom, and a handle to the top - and there you are, you've grown your own walking stick!